Here Today
by Believeinyourself16
Summary: Would you take the chance of a lifetime to travel around the world...and maybe fall in love along the way?
1. Chapter 1

"Ellie, we got the letter," Holly shouted, running into my room.

My eyes shot open while shock mixed in with my emotions, "WHAT? Did you open it yet?"

"No, I was waiting for you to get your lazy butt out of bed because that's how good of a friend I am," Holly declared with a reasurring smile.

"Of course you are," I said, jokingly, "Just hurry up and open it, I don't want to have to lie to my diary."

"And people think I'm the weird one," she shook her head in disbelief, ripping open the envelope.

---

"No, please don't make me open it. I could get a paper cut," Adam pleaded through the bathroom door.

Luke rolled his eyes with frustration, "Oh my God, you're such a fucking wimp. How the hell are we going to win if you can't open a piece of paper?"

"Excuse me Mister, but I believe you forced me into this madness. You're only doing this because of all the publicity you could get with the babes," he protested.

"Dude, you know me so well," Luke smirked, opening his phone.

"Who is it?" Adam asked, opening the door a crack.

"The only person I can call normal in this family," Luke affirmed, texting the stranger back.

Adam looked at him with a confused face, "But I'm standing right here and, plus, I didn't get a new text message."

"It's not you, you idiot. It's our brother, who actually gets to have a life unlike me," he responded, sadness in his voice.

"But, you get to see my beautiful face everyday of your life," Adam declared, giving him a kiss on his cheek.

"Lucky me," Luke said sarcastically with a disgusted look appearing on his face.

"You're very lucky," Adam agreed. "I'm going to go start packing, so that I can be ready to travel the world with my best friend!" he shouted, running up the stairs.

"What have I gotten my self into?" Luke muttered to himself, reading the letter with the word _ACCEPTED _at the top of it.

---

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Dainelle asked her husband, worried something bad had happened.

Cameron wiped tears from his eyes from laughing hard, "Oh nothing, sweetheart. Did you know that Adam is Luke's partnet for the race?" he wondered, trying not to laugh again.

"That's great," Dainelle said, sympathetically, "Why are you and Luke so mean to Adam, anyways?" she questioned, giving Cameron a dirty look.

"It's not that we're trying to be mean, but have you ever seen him run? It's like he's trapped in a woman's body," Cameron chuckled, before looking at Dainelle, who was giving him the evil eye, "Oh, but, you run beautifully."

"Nice try," she replied, still holding the same evil glare from before. Turning it back into her usual angelic face, she inquired, "Just promise me you'll try to be nice to him."

"I promise, gosh, stop controlling my life," Cameron exageratted, trudging into the living room.

"Boys, you can't live with them," Dainelle whispered to herself, shaking her head.

---

"Oh my gosh, can you believe that we're actually going to L.A. for the chance of a lifetime?" Kaylee squealed, gazing out the plane window.

"Honestly, I can because you have finally matured," Josh grinned, patting my shoulder.

"Like you're any better," she giggled, looking into the eyes of the one person she knew had always been there for her.

"Yes! Finally, someone who speaks the truth," Josh yelped, throwing his hands in the air.

"Excuse me, but some people are trying to get there beauty rest. So, could you two just zip it?" Peyton begged, throwing the lock away.

"Well, I guess somebody woke up on the wrong side of the plane this morning," Kaylee murmured into Peyton's ear.

"I can still hear you," she mumbled into her pillow, 'especially since it's right in my ear."

"Love you," Kaylee spoke softly, ruffling her long blone curls through the hole in the seat.

"Yeah, I'll have to think about that one, hun," Peyton replied, blowing me a kiss goodnight, "Sweet dreams, girly."

"Same to you, Peyton," Kaylee responded, resting her head back and moving a strand of hair out of Josh's eyes.

"Thank you," he sighed, stirring in his sleep.

"Anytime," Kaylee breathed, slowly drifting off to sleep.

---

_"Just take life as it comes because you never know what will happen if you don't give it a chance." _

I slowly placed my sticker filled diary at the top of my suitcase. Tomorrow was just another day that God had made, and I was ready to face it with whatever it held.


	2. Chapter 2

"I call the window seat," Adam shouted, looking for his seat.

"Whatever," Luke replied, plopping down next to me.

"Why are you sitting there?" he questioned, confused, "We're all the way in the back."

Luke let a small smirk play on his face, "You may be, but this is my seat," he responded, showing him his ticket.

"You're a poor excuse for a brother," he yelped, trudging to the back of the plane.

"Oh boo hoo, build yourself a bridge and get your wimpy ass over it," he shouted back, turning to meet Holly's gaze, Well hello there."

"Um, hi," she answered back shyly.

"Was that your brother?" I wondered, feeling bad for the way he was being treated.

Luke nodded his head, "Unfortunately, yes. But, don't feel bad for him, he does this all the time," he explained.

"Yup, no problem," I assured, "Would you just excuse me I have to go to the bathroom before the plane takes off," grabbing my bag.

"She's really going to sit with yur brother," she sighed, looking back toward where Adam was sitting.

"Yeah, probably," he nodded his head in agreement.

---

"Are we almost there?" Cameron groaned, glancing at the never-ending road.

"Would you hush? We're right here," Dainelle replied, pulling into the hotel.

"FINALLY!" Cameron hollered, "But, why is it in the middle of nowhere," searching for anything with life.

"I don't know, this is the address on the letter," she read the letter over again, "But, on the bright side, if you squint your eyes really hard you can see the Hollywood sign."

"Oh yeah. This is going to be a very interesting trip, he whispered to himself, admiring the blurry Hollywood sign.

---

"Well, this is interesting," Peyton squeaked, shocked by the building that stood in front of her.

"You could say that again. Who knew L.A. had so much open space?"

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Josh inquired, getting a little skeptical about the location.

"I'm pretty sure, I mean it's the same address on the letter," she guessed, thinking of why they would be sent there.

"Well whatever, let's just go check in," Kaylee concluded, walking toward the double doors of the hotel.

---

Hesitantly I tapped his shoulder, his eyes were stained from crying and I couldn't help but feel guilty. "Hey, are you okay?" I pried, sitting down next to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Adam sniffled, quickly wiping away his tears.

"Hey, it's okay, what your brother did to you was really mean," I exclaimed, pulling his hands away from his eyes, "and sometimes it's best to show people how you really feel."

"Thanks for being so nice to me. My name's Adam, by the way," he blubbered, holding out his hand.

"Ellie," I said, shaking his hand, "and it's no problem at all."

_It's the people you meet in your past that will help you become a better person in your future_.

I quietly closed my diary and put it back into my bag. The fastened seatbelts light came on, as I glanced out the window. And, by the way the lights sparkled in L.A. I could tell that this was going to be an unforgettable experience.


	3. Chapter 3

"Dude, wait up," Luke yelled, rushing over to Adam and I.

Adam turned around with an annoyed expression on his face, "What the hell do you want?"

"Please, don't try to act cool," Luke begged, pulling him off to the side.

"What the hell do you want?" he repeated, trying to get out of Luke's strong grip.

Luke's face turned into a serious expression, as his voice got lower than before, "Adam, you can't trust her, she's just using you."

"How do you know that?" he asked, his eye brows furrowing while I gave him a sweet smile.

"She's in the race with her friend, Holly," Luke responded, his voice going even lower.

Adam slowly began to nod his head, "Okay, I believe you," he murmured, holding out his fist.

"Good," Luke smirked, colliding his fist with Adam's.

---

"Excuse me sir, but do you know if this is where the race is taking place?" Peyton wondered, tapping the stranger on the shoulder.

The man slowly turned around, just to reveal himself out of his disgise, "Yes, as a matter of fact it is," he replied with a smile.

"Oh my god, it's Phil," Peyton screamed, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Phil?" Kaylee questioned, joining in the jump.

"I'm appaled to be apart of this moment," Josh muttered to himself, trying to avoid eye contact with the girls.

"Me too," Trevor agreed with a mortified nod.

"Yes, I think we've all established that I'm Phil," he said with a chuckle, "Now we just have to wait for the other teams to arrive."

"No problem at all, Phil" Kaylee giggled along with Peyton.

"Oh brother," Josh mumbled to himself, slowly rolling his eyes.

"You can say that again," Trevor whispered in his ear, glancing at the girls with the same horrified look plastered on his face.

---

"Let's just wait for your brothers to get here," Dainelle suggested, looking around the hotel for any sign of them.

"Alright, or we could always go join the huge mage pit surronding Phil," Cameron nodded his head toward the group of people.

She quickly grabbed her suitcase and made a dash toward him, "I vote the mage pit."

"Now there's the girl I married," Kevin grinned, following not too far behind her.

---

"You girls ready to go?" Luke inquired, gathering up all of Holly's things.

"Where?" I probed, glancing from Luke to Holly.

"Like you don't know," Adam hissed with a dirty look appearing on his face.

I gave him an inncocent smile, as I began to shake my head, "I really don't," I confessed.

"We're going with them because they're in the race also," Holly explained, "but, we can totally beat them," she winked, intertwining our hands.

"Is that a challenge?" Luke instigated with raised eyebrows.

"More like a promise," I responded, throwing my bag over my shoulder.

"Oh, it's so on," Luke laughed, making his way out of the airport.

"Then, let the games begin," I uttered to myself, squeezing Holly's hand.

"Trust me hun, they've already begun," Holly retorted, returning the squeeze.

---

The teams were assembled in a perfect assembly line. Every team I passed greeted us with a warm smile, but inside I could tell that they were envying their new opponent.

"Welcome, you must be Holly and Ellie, and you must be Adam and Luke. Obviously, I'm Phil, it's very nice to meet all of you," he introduced himself, shaking all of our hands.

"You too," I beamed, entering the line of teams with Holly.

"Suck up," Adam confided, slowly walking past me.

"Good one man," Luke snickered, patting his brother's shoulder.

Holly gave me a sympathetic look, "Don't listen to them they're just being douche's," she said, pulling me into a hug.

"Yeah, it's just apart of their 'games'," I forced myself to say, not knowing if that was the truth or not.

"Alright now this is something we don't usually do," Phil exclaimed, throughly examining each of the teams, "You are to join forces with another team and the last two teams that check into the pit stop will be eliminated. So, on your mark, get, set, **GO!**"

As I began to run full speed with Holly I felt somebody grab ahold of my waist, causing me to collide with them, "I'm so sorry," I apologized, meeting the gaze of a blue eyed man.

"Don't worry about it, it was my bad. See ya around," he winked, catching up with his other team mates.

"See ya," I sighed dreamily while being pulled by the wrist.

"We have to go," Holly shouted, "We're already with Luke and Adam," heading toward the halted taxi.

"Okay, what's the first task?" I seeked, glaring at the clue that Adam held in his hand.

Adam ripped open the clue, as he began to read, "Two members from each team will make there way to downtown L.A. and enter a place known as 'The Leap of Faith,' where they will have to bungee jump 1200 feet above water, in order to receive their next clue."

"I'll do it," I volunteered, preparing to fight my fears.

Holly looked at me with wide eyes, "But Ellie, you're scared to death of heights."

"I know, but I'm going to face my fear," I said as my heart began to beat faster and andranalene rushed through my veins.

"I'm really proud of you, Ellie," Holly pulled me into a hug, "Just promise me you'll be safe," she pulled away, holding out her pinky.

"I promise," I vowed, wrapping my pinky with hers.

Adam raised his hand like a little boy preparing to share his answer with his class, "I'll do it."

"Just remember what I said, dude, and don't let her get to your head."

"Don't worry, I won't."

---

"Are you ready?" Peyton asked, rushing out of the taxi.

"Ready as I'll ever be, hun," she annonced while keeping a steady pace with Peyton.

"Good, because it's a long way down," Peyton reassured with a fake smile.

"You got that right," Kaylee claimed, trying her best not to look at the ground below her.

"We'll get through this, Kay," she side hugged her best friend, beginning to be harnessed in with her.

---

"There's nothing else we can do," Dainelle put her had her hands as she felt the vibration of the road below her.

Cameron's face began to light up with excitement, "I have the greatest idea in the history of greatest ideas."

"What is it?" she wondered, afraid for what she was about to hear.

"We could pretend that we're from two different teams for this leg and do the task."

"Where would we get two other people?"

"Adam and Luke," he revealed, being harnessed in with Dainelle.

She began to lightly nod her head with a mischievious smirk, "Not a bad idea, babe," Dainelle replied, locking lips with her husband.

---

I glanced down at the harness that was being secured around my body. I could feel my legs continuing to shake with fear, as I gazed at the way the waves slowly hit the shore. The courage finally got to me as I urged myself to say, "I don't think I can do this Adam."

He began to look deep into my eyes while we were being harnessed in more closely, "Hey, don't worry, nothings gonna hurt you."

"I know, but I'm just really scared," I responded as tears flooded my eyes.

"Just think of it as a plane ride," he suggested, trying not to let his emotions get to him.

"Okay, on the count of three...1, 2, 3," the man shouted, realeasing us off of the bungee cord.

"NO!" I yelped, letting more tears fall.

His arms quickly pulled me closer toward him, as he wrapped them more securely around my waist, "I got you Ellie, nothing's going to hurt you," he said again, letting his emotions give in.

I tightened my grip on his muscular body and whispered, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it Ellie," he said, letting a small smile play on his face.

---

The sound of slamming doors filled the atmosphere as the teams raced to be the first team to get to the pit stop. I could see Phil in the distance checking in two other teams, as they leaped with excitement.

"Come on over here you guys," Phil waved his hand over his head, "You guys are team number two."

"Yeah, we'll take it," Adam screamed while throwing me up in the air, "And it's all because of this girl right here."

Through the corner of my eye, I could slowly see Luke clench his hands into fists while he pulled Holly into a hug.

---

_"You wouldn't judge a book by it's cover, so why judge a person by their personality"_

I didn't really know Luke that well, but with the next leg ahead of us, I was determined to get to know him better.


End file.
